As tablet computers continue to grow in their popularity, owners of new PC sets are set to continue to decline in number, according to recent analysis of the industry from Gartner.

The Stamford (USA)-based firm have offered the prediction that Q3 & Q4 2013 will see a drop of 10.6% in shipments of ‘desk-based and notebook computers’ worldwide, while tablet computers are anticipated to increase sales in that period by a huge margin of 67.9%.

Prior to the start of this year, traditional sets had been forecast to sell a total of 305 million units in 2013, with tablets only reaching 66% of that figure on 202 million, although both were cast in the large shadow of mobile phones shipment expectations on 1.8 billion units for the year.

Gartner, however, claim that the first two sub-industries could be compared very differently soon, with current market trends influenced by ‘changes in consumer preference’ along with the business strategies of manufacturers.

Gartner’s vice-president of research Carolina Milanesi said of the estimates: “Consumers want anytime-anywhere computing that allows them to consume and create content with ease, but also share and access that content from a different portfolio of products. Mobility is paramount in both mature and emerging markets.”

While some are already prematurely lamenting the demise of PC hardware (and blaming it primarily on Microsoft’s recent Windows 8 operating system performing below sales expectations), the companies themselves are not giving up, with Gartner noting that the release of ‘Haswell processors’ from Intel will aid the industry in the long-run, whilst corporations such as Samsung have vehemently denied that they will be jumping ship.

They said of reports published by The Korean Times that they will be re-focusing to work exclusively on laptops and tablets in their computers division: “The rumour that Samsung is withdrawing from the PC desktop business is groundless. Samsung will continue to offer diverse PC products according to consumer and market needs.”

While there is plenty of life in desktop computing yet, it is clear that more mobile methods continue to overshadow it (and even possess the ability to become their predecessors), so can traditional PCs continue to stay away from the unthinkable fate of their entire market eventually ending up covered in its own sediment?